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Two women fighting to return to their jobs with the Franklin County recorder’s office won’t be able to argue that a backlog shows that their jobs never should have been eliminated.

Gabrielle Wonnell and Kory Miller, who both worked for former Recorder Daphne Hawk, a Republican, were laid off from the recorder’s office in May. Recorder Terry J. Brown, a Democrat, said he eliminated their civil-service-protected positions as “office specialists” and replaced them with a single unprotected office-manager position to increase efficiency.

Efficiency is among several reasons a public office can legally eliminate a civil-service job.

Wonnell and Miller filed an appeal with the state’s personnel board of review; that is pending.

No one associated with the case would talk to The Dispatch. That includes the two women and their attorney, Michael Moses.

But court documents and recorded testimony that the newspaper obtained through a public-records request show that Administrative Law Judge Marcie M. Scholl had denied Moses’ attempts to argue that a backlog of unrecorded documents shows that Brown’s office has become less efficient since the women’s jobs were taken away.

Moses was not allowed to have a former employee who now deals with the office as a title searcher testify that wait times for documents increased from an average of one or two days at the start of the year to between 10 and 14 days at the height of the backlog.

Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Denise L. DePalma objected to the testimony on the county’s behalf, saying the observations of a former employee were not relevant.

Scholl ruled that because the county had not presented evidence concerning efficiency, Moses could not offer testimony as a counterclaim.

Because the county couldn’t prove that cutting the jobs led to increased efficiency, Moses then said, the judge should overturn the job cuts and reinstate his clients.

Scholl, reversing herself, said the county had presented “some” evidence of efficiency — just not something measurable that Moses could disprove.

For similar reasons, Scholl also kept Hawk from testifying. Hawk is Kory Miller’s mother-in-law.

At least one legal expert said the whole scenario seemed bizarre.

L. Camille Hebert, an Ohio State University law professor, said it’s unusual for appellants to not be able to present evidence they believe speaks to the central question of a case — in this instance, efficiency.

“That doesn’t make any sense, to the extent that it’s the county’s burden to back up” its claim of efficiency, Hebert said.

Hebert also thought it strange that the judge would not find the testimony of someone who had worked in the office two years ago relevant, because the proposed witness still interacts with the office.

“The reality is that current employees, for lots of reasons, are less likely to testify,” she said.

Terry L. Casey, the board of review’s chairman, said in an email that it’s common for parties to be able to offer additional information or ask to present additional evidence to the full board after the administrative law judge has issued an initial recommendation.

“Both sides will have ample opportunity to raise any and all appropriate legal and factual questions prior to any final consideration by this board,” Casey wrote.

Although the county did not provide a gauge by which efficiency in the office could be measured, Brown has testified that the change from several people sharing the receptionist duties to one had been well-received by the public.

People appreciate “having a consistent face in the office, having the same person they deal with day in and day out when they come to the front counter,” Brown said.

“Things are flowing more smoothly and much more efficiently in the office,” Brown said.

Moses told Scholl that it’s not enough for the county to just say it’s more efficient.

“We deserve the right to know, or to be on notice, as to what the standard of efficiency is that’s being asserted here,” he said. “To me, it defies logic that you could say ‘It’s more efficient because we say it is.’”